Happy Creation Day, from TNP to You!

[SillyString]

Hi! I'm SillyString, Deputy Minister of Culture in TNP. I'm also known to some of you as Astarial.

Today is the 15th anniversary of NationStates, a day which TNP marks as a holiday - Creation Day! It is a time for commemorating and celebrating the establishment of NationStates, and for extending fellowship throughout the NS community.

Yup, I totally cribbed that description from our laws.

So! Rather than hold a celebration all alone on our dusty old forum, we wanted to have one here (and one on our RMB) and invite you all to participate! Stop and stay a while! Share a story or two! Have some fabled TNP spiced rum!



Whether it was last week or last decade, what brought you to NationStates? What made you decide to stick around?

What was it like when you had to surf update, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways? Back before Kids These Days Ruined Everything? Back when the NS forums were (shudder) Jolt?

What do you miss? What don't you miss?

Who's the oldest player you know? If you can get them to post in this thread, your next round of drinks is on the house!

[Zemnaya Svoboda]

Jolt? Jolt!? Back in my day jolt was the promised deliverance from the grinding chaos that was the original phpbb forum! Double posts were everywhere, as were posts unmade. Tagging was the only way to ever find anything, and tags were everywhere (many, double posted).

I'm not sure which player I played with back then was the oldest player. Nor if a player I met later is older still.

I'll look into that.

[Roland Prime]

Happy Creation day, everyone!

[Merconitonitopia]

NationStates is older now than I was when I joined. Ain't that something.

Whether it was last week or last decade, what brought you to NationStates? What made you decide to stick around?

July of 2013, on a once-bustling Internet forum that has long since perished, I heard some folks talking about this game. Intrigued, I asked what they were on about, and when I first created Merconitontiopia (the etymology of such a name I won't go into) I immediately fell in love.
I've been playing pretty consistently since, as my trend would imply, and old Merconitonitopia has gone through many evolutions and iterations since, from the original lawless wasteland it once was, to couple of monarchies, the PDCM, and today, the Holy Lands. I CTE'd once for a month, maybe a year or so ago, but since then I've been hooked again.

Honestly, can't say there's much I miss about NS in the past, beyond memories. As a mostly gameplay-oriented user the game has improved in so many ways for the better since I joined.

[Unibot III]

Whether it was last week or last decade, what brought you to NationStates? What made you decide to stick around?

A late night editing a school play. The school play's antagonist was Eduard Heir and the Unibot Corporation, Connecticut. I some how found the site while I was bored and procrastinating editing. I stuck around because I was intrigued by its activity and its creativity - the game felt like a real sandbox at that time with people doing their own things out of ... nothing. It was a fun environment for my school friends and I to play in.

What was it like when you had to surf update, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways? Back before Kids These Days Ruined Everything? Back when the NS forums were (shudder) Jolt?

Jolt sucked, these forums are quite shiny in comparison - but not as bad as NationStates 2. That thing was awful, man. Awful. I remember being so deeply disappointed by NS2.

I actually did surf update one time, barefeet and in the snow - is that a reference to me? My internet was notoriously unreliable. One fateful night during a liberation, my internet went down. So I booted out to my backyard through a raging Canadian blizzard with slippers (but no socks, so I was covered in snow by the end) and a shovel - and I pounded the snow off my satellite dish antennae. And bam, my internet was revived. I managed to squeak into the liberation at the last second (I think we got it too.)

I think the thing I would be most "curmudgeon" about would be telegrams. I used to love sending out telegrams en masse and still do, hah. I think stamps sucked a lot of life out of the WA and Gameplay. But maybe that's just me romanticizing dull work. If you knew what you were doing you could get a resolution in the queue in three hours (the quota was a lot smaller in and around 2009 when the game was struggling more.)

What do you miss? What don't you miss?

I miss Solm, Mahaj, Harm, Rav, and all the old UDL group. I don't miss the stress and the politics and stuff. I was so stressed then. But I do miss the crew. They were so terribly mischievous. I have some good memories of the WA, but it could be such a divided group when I was playing, I enjoyed being a "pioneer" of sorts in the SC. Nowadays, the SC's ways are very set, but back then it was the wild west - AMOM, Topid, Sedge and I were writing the very first SC resolutions and essentially blazing the trails for everyone else. I miss that energy. There were so many trails to blaze even then, eight or nine years after the game was created - new sinkers were being created, new WA categories, new R/D tools. Also: I do miss writing and editing for the Rejected Times, I don't miss its deadlines (a double entente that works!)

Who's the oldest player you know?

Technically, Max. I think, The Bruce is the oldest player I've met. Thom and Blackbird are possibilities?

[Abhichandra]

Happy Creation Day/Anniversary NationStates!

[Helladic Empire]

Ah, happy creation day to all members!

Indeed, i remember the first time i joined Nationstates, maybe in november? of 2015, introduced by an online friend on Google+ (back when Google Plus was bursting with activity), didn't find much interest, stayed for a couple hours and then i was bored and simply left for nonths until i decided to get a better look at it in march 2016, then upon discovering more of the game i fell in love and i've constantly been creating new main nations every 2-3 months or so (don't ask why).

[Stellar Colonies]

Ah...

I first found NS when I was looking for a game just like it. After dumping another one that I disliked, I just searched terms like <Make your own country> and found NationStates. After browsing around on the forums for an hour or two, I went ahead and created Kadur.

Now it's been almost a year since that fateful day when everything changed and I've made seven nations. Two of them currently CTE'd. It's been fun so far.

[Destructive Government Economic System]

So! Rather than hold a celebration all alone on our dusty old forum, we wanted to have one here (and one on our RMB) and invite you all to participate! Stop and stay a while! Share a story or two! Have some fabled TNP spiced rum!

(Image)

Happy 15th anniversary of NationStates and I would like to-

*Steals all the rum and evacuates thread*

[Hammer Britannia]

Creation Day? You might as well have named it something less stupid, like Life Day.

[Salvarity]

A memorable occasion. It's amazing how fast time can fly with this game.

[Todd McCloud]

Aww, this site's almost legal to drive.

[Reploid Productions]

Aww, this site's almost legal to drive.

And it's old enough to post on the forums!

[Tysoania]

Whether it was last week or last decade, what brought you to NationStates? What made you decide to stick around?
Edgy teenage me thought that it would super cool and radical to try out my (pretty shit) political theories with a political simulator. NS was the first Google result, so I signed up. I forgot about it within a week until I rediscovered it a year or two later, rebooted my nation, and began actually using the site's various features. Several years later, here I am, having just celebrated hitting 10 billion citizens two weeks ago.

[Luziyca]

I wanted to make some sort of kingdom when I was 12 in 2009, this was the only reputable one that came up, so... here I am.

As such, I've pissed away my teenage years on this site.

[Kaldrassil]

"almost legal to drive" in 3 years.

[Luziyca]

Aww, this site's almost legal to drive.

Y'know, NS was created closer to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the USA and the USSR than it is to the present.

[Tysoania]

"almost legal to drive" in 3 years.

In Canada and the USA, new drivers can get an intermediate license at 16 years old. Canada and most states in the USA also allow you to have a learner's permit at 15.

[The Alexanderians]

Aww, this site's almost legal to drive.

In montana it would be already

[Merconitonitopia]

"almost legal to drive" in 3 years.

where do you live where driving age is 18?

[Roavin]

Whether it was last week or last decade, what brought you to NationStates?

This imgur post brought me to the site.

What made you decide to stick around?

The people! NationStates can be very intimidating at first, but I was inquisitive and in the old TSP IRC channel, I met Henn and Raven, and from there Kringalia, Glen-Rhodes, Farengeto, Resentine, and probably others I'm forgetting, who were all very eager and happy to answer my millions of (sometimes) really stupid questions. Then Discord, the forums, then the greater GP world starting in June of '16 ...

Y'all can be fuckers but I love you. <3

What was it like when you had to surf update, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways? Back before Kids These Days Ruined Everything? Back when the NS forums were (shudder) Jolt?

I'm not that old that I had to surf update both ways in the snow, but I suppose at this point I'm old enough to remember pre-Vapid triggering and chasing without Breeze

There was also the end of 2016, when pretty much every experienced jumpy-switchy-type defender commander went AWOL and several of us had to reinvent much of the non-obvious things, and also learn some hard lessons along the way. Built character, though, and it resulted in probably the best defender or defender-leaning gameplayers in many generations.

What do you miss?

People that have gone, usually.
I also miss not being the BIGGEST DEFENDERIST GCR SUBVERSIVE OF ALL TIME LIKE BASICALLY UNIBOT TIMES A MILLION OMG (according to Manifesto-Thumpers).
I also miss non-admin Eluvatar (but on the other hand, he's doing great work now, so I'm not going to complain (maybe I'll make snarky remarks about bugs here and there but hey I'm a software developer by trade, I know how this works))

What don't you miss?

Certain other people.

Who's the oldest player you know? If you can get them to post in this thread, your next round of drinks is on the house!

Tsunamy is the oldest player I know - a true legend, co-founder of the oldest extant democracy in NationStates, an all-around wonderful person, and somebody that is, in my personal opinion, absolutely commend-worthy.

[Alanis Star]

Happy Creation Day!

As I have said on another post, I am far from being the oldest. My oldest nation, Valentine Z, was only founded on 8th of Nov, after a friend shared about the game with me. Funny thing is, I wanted just "Valentine", but it was taken (and will take 100+ days from now to be able to reused), so I went with Valentine Z.

I came in because the notion of a nation simulator was something that I have only heard about. It's not just about running my own nation; what made me stay was the fact that you can customize your nation with a Factbook entry, Roleplay, whatever! It's also friendly to newcomers because store items are purely for technical reasons (I bought Postmaster-General for Valentine Z) such as sending telegrams and reserving your nation's name.

I think Reppy said it once, and that was my reason to stay (even longer): NS is unlike those games you find on App Stores or Google Play. That this is not a pay-to-win, and younger players are not curb-stomped by the larger ones. Sure, there's a Challenge mode where larger nations with larger NS stats have an advantage, but then again, it's just another feature that doesn't affect your nation.

Last but not least, the swell and lovely community here. I really enjoy talking and RPing with you guys.

Whew, that got longer than I originally thought it out to be. Prost!